How the publisher describes it:

Perfect for fans of Glass Onion, The Traitors, and Murdle, this immersive, high-concept mystery puts you at the center of a decades-old case. With razor-sharp twists, sly misdirection, and a clever nod to Agatha Christie, THE GAME IS MURDER reinvents the closed-circle whodunit for a new generation.

The setup? A murder mystery party with real stakes: a decaying English manor, an unsolved crime from the 1970s, and a cast of cunning suspects. Your mission: read each account, weigh the clues, and name the killer. But beware—nothing is quite as it seems.

If you love solving puzzles, testing your theories, and outwitting unreliable narrators, you won’t want to miss this one.

More from the publisher on the book:

About the Book:

In this fresh and immersive murder mystery that riffs on crime classics, the reader is put in the role of the Great Detective, reinvestigating an infamous never-before-solved case from 1970s England.

You are invited to a very special murder mystery party. The game is simple: Listen to the witnesses. Examine the evidence. Solve the case. Be careful. Trust no one. All might not be as it seems.

If you agree to play the role of the Great Detective, you must undertake to provide a complete solution to the case. A verdict is not enough. We need to know who did it, how they did it, and why. Are you ready? Can you solve the ultimate murder mystery—and catch a killer?

About the Author:

Hazell Ward lives in Wrexham in North Wales, where she spent many years as an adult education teacher before going on to work for a charitable organization as a mentor to young people. She completed an MA in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and is currently juggling finishing her PhD with writing her second novel. She was short-listed for the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition in 2021 and won the Crime Writer’s Association Short Story Dagger in 2023 for her story “Cast a Long Shadow,” published by Honno Press. The Game Is Murder is her debut novel.

• My thoughts:
• This is a bold, original and creative story that rewards the reader’s paying attention and thinking. It is rather ingenious in how it borrows from the genre. For example, I noted that the chapters are all named after famous detective novels; to name a few that are included there are A Murder is Announced by Christie; The Documents in the Case by Sayers; Footsteps in the Dark by Heyer; The Daughter of Time by Tey; and Artists in Crime by Marsh. Also, even within the first few chapters, astute readers will recognize names-there is Stanley Gardner, Wilkie Collins and Nicholas Blake. For certain, the more crime stories a reader knows, the more they will exclaim as they read.
• The case involved a murder that, at least in the beginning of the novel, seemed reminiscent of Lord Lucan. Readers hear the story of what happened, initially by a family member and the story takes off from there.
• This book will be adored by its intended audience.
• Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for this title.

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From the publisher:

Reviews:

From Kirkus Reviews:

THE GAME IS MURDER

by Hazell Ward ‧

Hardcore fans entranced by all those Easter eggs may well turn the last page wondering if they’ve missed even more.

Move over, Anthony Horowitz. First-timer Ward has entered with a whodunit just as playfully meta as yours, though in very different ways.

Back in 1974, banker-turned-gambler Lord John Verreman, faced with financial ruin and divorce, sneaked into the basement of his estranged wife’s home and attacked Lady Antonia Verreman with a lead pipe, only to discover that the woman he’d killed in the dark was actually his sons’ nanny, Sally Gardner. At least that’s the story David Verreman tells the guests assembled at the Berkeley Club half a century later to determine once and for all whether or not David and Daniel’s father, who vanished before he could be brought to trial, was really guilty. The 13 guests include DCI Nicholas Blake; coroner Ronald Knox; pathologist Cameron McCabe; Sally’s husband, merchant seaman Stanley Gardner; Antonia’s sister, Carolyn Keene-Wade; and others whose names, like Ward’s chapter titles, pay tribute to the authors and classics of the detective story’s Golden Age. After kicking off with an elaborate contract between The Author and The Reader, Ward keeps interjecting pop-up games along the way and changing the rules of her big game, so that A.N. Author, King’s Counsel, the prosecuting attorney in one part of the story, turns into a witness for the defense in another part. Clues like the putative murder weapon will be analyzed to within an inch of their lives and all parties in attendance will stand accused, singly and jointly, of crimes and misdemeanors before the author pulls one last rabbit from her hat in a denouement likely to be hailed with both surprise and exhausted relief. Hardcore fans entranced by all those Easter eggs may well turn the last page wondering if they’ve missed even more.

Praise:

“A high-energy mystery, both exclamation point and question mark – like Agatha Christie on amphetamines. Imagine a labyrinth packed with ninety-degree turns and spiralling staircases and art on the walls – and a ruthless guide addressing you directly from the page – and you’ve got a sense of The Game Is Murder, a striking, playful novel for neither the faint of heart nor the slow of wit.” –A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman In The Window

“Move over, Anthony Horowitz. First-timer Ward has entered with a whodunit just as playfully meta as yours, though in very different ways.” –Kirkus Reviews

“A postmodern puzzler that dares to pull apart every trope in the book – literally.” –Antony Johnston, New York Times bestseller and author of Can You Solve the Murder?

“A significant achievement, packed with insight and invention, The Game Is Murder presents the reader with a fiction killing that seems to defy explanation. It is witty and remarkable and entirely unpredictable.” –Alex Pavesi, author of Eight Detectives

“Strikingly original, but with nods to Golden Age crime, it’s an ingenious story of constantly changing perspectives. Different, clever, and highly entertaining!” –Guy Morpuss, author of A Trial In Three Acts

“Clever and unusual…What an intriguing start for this author!” –FirstClue Reviews

“Excellent fun, and perfect for anyone who loves Murdle.” –The Bookseller